yogi – theatre artist – mom

Week 1: Vision Board (and Sassy Comic About it)

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. – Jonathan Swift

As part of my New Year’s intentions, I’ve set out to create one thing each week. Week 1 was actually a two-for-one deal: a vision board and a sassy comic on the various emotions it brought up for me (more on that below).

Create the highest, grandest vision for your life, because you become what you believe. – Oprah Winfrey

There are as many different interpretations of how to do a vision board as there are finished products (and if you’re interested in precise instructions on the vision board concepts, check out this blog post by Christine Kane.) I first received the suggestion to create a vision board more than 10 years ago. A college acquaintance and I reconnected – he was living in L.A. and hustling to make a living in television land, and I was adrift in NYC – not really doing theatre or much else except sitting in my little studio apartment night-after-night smoking my weight in dope. Among his suggestions was the creation of a vision board. He had very precise instructions: put the one big thing you want in the center, and everything else radiates out from that. For example, if love is what one desires, that word (or associated image) goes in the center and every other word or image connects to it.

About five years ago, another friend of mine suggested the vision board to me again. She told me she does a vision board for herself each New Year’s Eve. It’s become a kind of ritual. She sketches hers out and continues to add to it for several days/weeks.

Last year, I did several workshops at YogaSport and a vision board was involved in a couple of them. In those instances, we scoured magazines for images to represent goals we had set individually and as a group and made a collage on poster board.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last Saturday I was invited to a vision board party by a yoga friend. Most of the women there were yoga teachers and this has become an annual, celebratory event for them. They each had different takes on the vision boards: some taking the images they placed quite literally, others finding images that captured the essence of what they were intending to manifest in 2015.

The world is but a canvas to our imagination. – Henry David Thoreau

When it came to actually making mine, it made me a little anxious – I lean toward the idea of images that capture essence, so does that jinx me in the universe? What if the universe comes back and gives me the exact rendition of the image I picked and that’s not what I intended? How precise does one have to be? Is the universe looking for a way to fuck me over “aha she put a picture of a baby, let’s give her eight!”

When complete, I was so angsty about whether I’d done it “right” or not, that I didn’t even show Brett my finished product when I came home that afternoon. I did manage to post a picture of it on Instagram (again, I’m good with public shaming). One of my visual artist friends commented on the photo and on the power of vision boards (as he packed his bags to go join the design team for Vera Bradley). I finally circled back to the friend who sketches one out for herself each New Year’s Eve and she put my mind at ease. I’m no longer worried about summoning Taylor Swift to lay on the beach beside me. And, in case you’re wondering, I pasted that image because I want to feel like what I think it captures.

Some Most people don’t know that I also have a site for sarcastic comic-like blogs I write. I hadn’t felt inspired for a year, but the creation of a vision board seemed the perfect time to let my alter-ego show her colors. I’ve pasted it below, and for past sassy comics you can visit my other site.